Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith believes the questions about Brian Urlacher's knee should end now that he has undergone an arthroscopic debridement procedure on his left knee following an entire offseason of what amounts to wasted rehab.

Urlacher suffered his knee injury in the Jan. 1 regular-season finale at Minnesota when safety Major Wright collided with him going for a pass, and the Bears treated the sprained medial collateral ligament and partially sprained posterior collateral ligament with rest and rehab. The knee swelled up on Urlacher at camp and a decision was made by Urlacher on Monday night to have it scoped on Tuesday morning.

"There shouldn't be any reason to really be concerned," Smith said.

Smith called it a "minor scope on his knee. Everything came out the way that we wanted it to."

Urlacher returned to the Olivet Nazarene University training camp facility in the morning after surgery but did not attend the afternoon practice.

"I feel good that now we've gone in and we've done everything we could possibly do and we can't wait to get him back out on the football field," Smith said.

As for the less aggressive treatment of the knee, the Bears believe they were in the right with the way it was originally treated.

"We followed protocol in what we thought we should do at the time," Smith said. "And now that  we're here going back to last season doesn't help an awful lot.

"Right now Brian got the knee scoped. He's feeling really good about that. Again that's about all you can do right now to put the knee in the best possible position to be ready for the first game."

A return by the opener Sept. 9 seems reasonable if no complications arise.

Former Bears guard Tom Thayer, who is the radio color analyst on CBS affiliate WBBM AM-780, recalled how former Bears defensive end Trace Armstrong once played with only four days off between his surgery and the game. Thayer himself had three such arthroscopic procedures. On the current Bears, defensive end Israel Idonije had a knee scoped in October of 2009 and played in a game 16 days later.

Then again, defensive tackle Stephen Paea said he had a knee scoped after his final college season and never fully recovered from it throughout his rookie NFL season. It wasn't until he had another procedure this past offseason that he began to feel 100 percent.

"I was walking after surgery," Paea said. "Then after three or four weeks, I started jogging and running. He should get range of motion back. I wouldn't be surprised if he's walking and working after a week or two."

Until Urlacher returns, the Bears will continue practicing with Nick Roach in the middle and reserve Geno Hayes playing Roach's strong side spot.

With the defense itself, there's no concern with Roach's knowledge of the system. He had to play the middle in three games in 2009 after Urlacher suffered a season-ending wrist dislocation in the season-opener. The question is whether Hayes can come into a new system as a starter.

"You can never get too comfortable in the system," Hayes said. "There's always something to learn. But right now I'm feeling pretty good about the things I've learned so far."

The system is like Tampa's scheme, but some terminology is different, like the weakside linebacker is what Tampa called the strongside linebacker, and vice versa.

By and large, defensive players just consider it fortunate that the injury has been addressed well in advance of the regular season.

"This is preseason," linebacker Lance Briggs said. "Brian’s been through this a number of times. He’ll be OK. But having him there when the regular season comes around, that’s what’s most important.”

Follow Bears reporter Gene Chamberlain on Twitter @CBSSportsNFLCHI.